#135: Seasons

Saturday, May 20, 2023 – 7:30pm

The finale of our 30th anniversary season begins with the pulsating energy of Libby Laren’s Overture for the End of a Century. At the heart of the program is a world premier by extraordinary cellist and composer Andrew Yee, “Briefly Gorgeous.” Finally, our season comes full circle with the work of another singular voice in American music, Duke Ellington. Ellington’s The River follows the journey of water from spring to brook, lake to falls, river to sea, and earthly element to a symbol of transformation and rebirth.

  • Libby Larsen – Overture for the End of a Century
  • Augusta Holmès – La Nuit et l’Amour
  • Andrew Yee – World Premier
  • Duke Ellington – The River

About Andrew Yee

Andrew Yee in a barely-visible brightly colored shirt against a dark background, long hair surrounding their face.
Andrew Yee

GRAMMY Award winning cellist and composer Andrew Yee has been praised by Michael Kennedy of the London Telegraph as “spellbindingly virtuosic”. Trained at the Juilliard School, they are a founding member of the internationally acclaimed Attacca Quartet who have released several albums to Critical acclaim including Andrew’s arrangement of Haydn’s “Seven Last Words” which Thewholenote.com praised as “ . . .easily the most satisfying string version of the work that I’ve heard.” They were the quartet-in-residence at the Met Museum in 2014, and have won the Osaka and Coleman international string quartet competitions. They co-composed a score to Wu Tsang’s film adaptation for Moby Dick; or, The Whale that was premiered with the Zurich Chamber Orchestra, and then in New York at the Shed by the New York Philharmonic. Their recording of the string quartets of Caroline Shaw won a GRAMMY for best Chamber Music/Small Ensemble performance.

As a soloist last season Andrew performed John Taverner’s The Protecting Veil and Strauss Don Quixote. In 2019 they won the first prize at Oklahoma University’s National Arts Incubation Lab for their pitch of a wearable garment that translates sound into vibrations for the hard of hearing. They like to make stop-motion videos of food, draw apples, cook like an Italian Grandma and have developed coffee and cocktail programs for award-winning restaurants (Lilia, Risbobk, Atla) in New York City.

Their solo project “Halfie” draws on their experience as a bi-racial and non-binary person in having access to multiple communities at once, while not feeling at home in any of them. The works commissioned and on the concerts will feature a wide range of composers all for solo cello. 

They play on an 1884 Eugenio Degani cello on loan from the Five Partners Foundation. 

www.andrewyeecellist.com

Conducted by Brian Dowdy

Works Performed

  • Libby Larsen, Overture for the End of a Century
  • Augusta Holmès, La Nuit et l’Amour
  • Andrew Yee, Briefly Gorgeous
  • Duke Ellington, The River

Dates Performed

  • May 20, 2023